This invention relates generally to roofing or roof construction in building a new roof on a new building, in remodeling, or in repairing or replacing an existing roof, and is particularly concerned with a support apparatus for use in roofing to support a stack of roof sheathing material such as plywood and enabling a safe cutting platform.
In roof construction, roof sheathing panels or sheets of plywood or the like are secured over the roof rafters or frame to form a base for roof finish materials such as shingles or wood shakes. In the field of roof construction, whether it has been of new construction or of a re-roofing nature, there has always been a problem in placing multiple sheets of sheathing material on an incline while affording an individual a safe working area for cutting and attaching the sheets to the underlying rafters. A stack of sheathing sheets sufficient to cover a typical inclined roof surface will be extremely heavy, and such a stack cannot be safely placed on an incline without support. Up to now, one solution to this problem has been to leave the plywood sheets stacked on the ground, and for a person on the ground to pass them up one at a time to the person working on the roof. This is clearly inefficient. Another alternative technique has been to fasten short length wooden 2" by 4" posts to the side of rafters with nails, so that the posts project upwardly from the rafters, and to stack the plywood behind these posts. This is not particularly safe, and if the posts should give way any person on the roof beneath the stack will be swept off the roof and may be seriously injured, and persons on the ground will also be at risk.